The current plan is for a building with a 300,000 square foot footprint, with facitilies that include a football stadium, a hardball field, two softball fields, four tennis courts, a practice field with a track, three parking lots with a total of 800 parking spots ... and more importantly, for over 1600 students.

However, many studies and books describe the negative effects on the educational experience of making schools too large. Some studies conclude that a school of even half that of the proposed new high school is too large. Here are just a few links to follow:

• School Size, School Climate, and Student Performance, Close Up #20, Kathleen Cotton, NW Regional Educational Laboratory's School Improvement Research Series, 1996
• What Does It Really Cost to Graduate a High School Student?, The Rural School and Community Trust, 1999
• Review of the book High Schools on a Human Scale, How Small Schools Can Transform American Education, Thomas Toch, Beacon Press, 2003
• Affective and Social Benefits of Small-Scale Schooling, Kathleen Cotton, ERIC Digest, 1996
• The Impact of School Size, Robert Ehrich of Virginia Tech.
• When It Comes to School Size, Smaller Is Better, Andrew Rotherham, Commentary, Education Week, Feb. 24, 1999
• The Dimensions of Education: Recent Research on School Size, D.T. Williams, Working Paper Series, 1990 (pdf)
• Could Smaller Schools Be the American Future?, Neal Peirce, New Schools, Better Neighborhoods, Washington Post Writers Group, March 21, 2004

Also, check out theAnn Arbor District Black Parents and Students Support Group's June 9, 2004 Report to the Board.

So, with all this debate, and evidence, about the effects of large schools in large districts on all students and particularly minority students, why is the Ann Arbor Public School system following the District's plan to put in too large a school on a site that cannot support it in an area of the city that doesn't match the demographic needs of the district?

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The AAPS and the Board have succeeded in getting a portion of Ann Arbor voters to pass the ballot to build the school. However, the money is only to build the school; bond funds cannot be used to run the school or hire teachers. How does the District plan to find money to run the school? By relying on increasing enrollment.

• Ann Arbor residents should see demographic studies that show clearly that the public school student population will increase
• Is the $6,700 per student from the State of Michigan enough to run all the high schools?
• Perhaps it is enough, assuming economy of scale. Put enough students in one building and you can eke out an education for them. Are we choosing a Walmart approach to educating our kids?
• Read more: Hard Lessons: Causes and Consequences of Michigan's School Construction Boom, Michigan Land Use Institute, August, 2004

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